Video cameras are frequently used for the purpose of conducting surveillance or monitoring operations. Such cameras may be aligned to capture images of actions or events within their respective fields of view, and information regarding the captured images or the actions or events may be recorded and subjected to further analysis in order to identify aspects, elements or features of the content expressed therein. For this purpose, video cameras may be provided alone or in groups, and may be programmed to recognize when an action or event has occurred, such as when a frame-to-frame analysis of video imagery suggests that a predetermined threshold has been exceeded or that a predetermined condition has been satisfied, or when the analysis otherwise implies the occurrence of the action or the event based on information captured by the cameras.
Typically, when a group or array of cameras is provided for the purpose of conducting an analysis of the content expressed in one or more still or moving images, one of the video cameras of the group or array is manually selected. Next, an area of interest in a field of view of the camera is identified. Such an area may constitute some or all of the pixels of the field of view. Finally, an activity that may occur within the field of view may be identified according to one or more content-based analyses.
The process of selecting one or more of a plurality of cameras for conducting video analytics for a specific purpose can be complicated by geographic considerations and real-world constraints. For example, without conducting extensive trial-and-error analyses, or individually evaluating the suitability of each of the cameras for the specific purpose, there is currently no way to discern which of the plurality of cameras would provide the best or most advantageous views with regard to the specific purpose. Particularly in time-critical situations or in ever-changing environments, current systems and methods for identifying appropriate cameras for conducting video analytics are inadequate in this regard. Additionally, no such systems or methods may be applied forensically, that is, to determine which of a plurality of cameras may have captured information regarding an event of interest that has already occurred. Rather, the information captured by each of the plurality of cameras must be individually evaluated in order to determine whether one or more of the cameras recorded information regarding the event of interest, or to evaluate the quality of such information.